The need frequently arises for electrically grounding a piece of electrical equipment in order, for example, to establish a reference potential in an electrical circuit or to provide protection against electrical shock. Of growing importance in the computer age, however, is the need also to shunt troublesome interference to ground. Such interference includes, but is not limited to, charges of static electricity, lightning-induced electrical surges and electrical noise harmful to the operation of computers and computer peripherals such as modems, monitors and printers. In order to shunt such interference to ground and thereby render it innocuous, a ground connection must be made to the affected component of the computer system or to a protective auxiliary including surge arrestors and noise suppressors. Heretofore, such ground connections have been made in power receiving components by way of the ground prong in a three-prong power line plug that is plugged into a grounded wall outlet. However, it has not heretofore been convenient in the usual office environment to conveniently ground components not of the plug-in kind. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find a waterpipe or other similar electrically grounded structure in the usual office environment to which a ground connection could be made. And, if such a structure should per chance be available, its utilization would more than likely result in an undesirable maze of ground connections thereto.
Furthermore, there is a need for the provision of grounding accessories for effecting a ground connection to a device by way of a ground lead from a power outlet without dedicating the outlet to such connection.
It is also desirable that such a device be adaptable for mechanically connecting the ground wire of various accessories having different wire size and terminal specifications.
Furthermore, such a grounding device should, ideally, lend itself to adaptations providing safety and data display circuitry.